Meandering analysis

Against women

Stumbling and Mumbling lists seven things that are wrong with women. While some will no doubt be offended, can someone explain how it is any worse than the common suggestions that men are worse at communicating, multi-tasking etc., as Flip Chart Fairy Tales points out. In addition, there is the logical link between what women are supposed to be better than men at, and what women are supposed to be worse than men at.

Take multi-tasking. If women are better at multi-tasking, then it implies that they are worse at things that require single minded concentration: playing chess, programming computers, driving etc. Which is it to be?

The biggest problem, which most people seem to have trouble grasping, is that something that is true on average may be completely swamped by individual differences. Then again, this simply reflects the fact that the vast majority of people simply cannot assess statistics — most people cannot make sensible assessments of risk either and worry about low risks (paedophiles, terrorists, train accidents, aircraft crashes) and tolerate high risks (road accidents, domestic accidents, sickness, suicide).

The one difference is male and female intelligence that there is solid evidence for, is that there is greater variation in male intelligence: i.e. there are more really clever men then women, but there are also more really stupid men than women. Of course saying this got Larry Summers into trouble, but I interpret that as demonstrating that debate on sexual equality issues is dominated by the interests of an elite.

The average woman would lose nothing if this idea was accepted: in fact most women would gain from the assumption that they are unlikely to be stupid. Those who might lose are a tiny minority near enough the top of their professions who might gain from “positive” discrimination aimed at equalising the numbers of men and women in very senior jobs.

Of course, in practical terms, the answer is to simply treat people as individuals, and assess their individual merits. Oh, and if you are a man who has a boss who ways that women are “more intuitive” or “better with people” please sue if a woman is promoted over you, just as a woman would if passed over by a boss who said that men are “more logical” or “better team players”. Either both are acceptable, or neither is. I of course, believe in simply treating people as individuals, but that goes against the way things done in a target-obsessed, centrally planned world.